Morning journal and courier., 1887-12-29
POSITIONS CARNIVAL OF CRIME.

POSITIONS CARNIVAL OF CRIME. l The Police Unable to Cope With tn. l Crooks yhO Have SwOOped DovvE on the City.
 BOSTON, Dec. 2S.-With regard to tht
 widely published sensational articles report 1 ing "a carnival of crime" in Boston and rep 1 resenting that the city was Infested with thieves'' and that the lives and property oi | citizens were in constant danger, Commis-
 sioner Osborne, Superintendent Small and Chief Inspector Hanscom were interviewed
 to-day. Commissioner Osborne said that
 the citizens of Boston have no just reason to
 be alarmed respecting the safety of their
 lives or property. It is true that number
 of "breaks" have been made and number
 of minor robbsries have been committed
 during the past few weeks, but if the matter
 is looked into in careful and unprejudiced
 way you will find that there is occasion
 fer fear There are fewer robberies being
 committed at the present time than were
 committed during the corresponding period
 of last year. This is fact that cannot be
 controverted. The whole affair has been en-
 tirely misstated and greatly exaggerated.
 Superintendent Small said there has been
 no great increase in robberies in this city.
 There has been no increase aG all 1T the truth
 was only stated. He did not credit the
 statement that New York crooks were york;
 ing here and said; s'The entire grist of
 these alleged robberies have been published
 to malign the police department in general
 and myself in particular. If there is any men are not doing their duty he is welcome to consult the records. During the past three years, and with our assistance, three hundred more years of imprisonment have been neted out to crooks than during any previous period of time of the same length.n
 The Herald prints an article tonight which says in part that 'the excitement over the alarming prevalence of all sorts of crime in this city does not diminish and in fact is still increasing. It is the chief topic of conver- saUion and there is no end of comment heard. It is all turned toward the superintendent of police to whom, as the chief executive off, cer of the department, the citizens naturally look for protection. It looks as if some pub lie movement of the citizens will become nec- essary in the matter if something in the way of heroic treatment is not done by the police. Such talk is heard and the movement only needs some public-spirited citizens to start it. In fairness to Superintendent Small it should be stated that he has given orders for all the policemen to work extra hours and numbers have been out upon the street at night on the watch for crooked characters, but this laborious work has resulted in exhausting the men. While the police as whole no doubt are to do their best to suppress the excessive amount of crime, it does not appear that they have been very successful No ar- rests have been made in the multitude of cases of burglaries which have been reported of late. There have been several arrests of sarroters, but they have come about through citizens who happened to be present when they occurred. Superintendent Small and members of the board of police in interviews amount of crime in this city. The Herald has 3 great deal of the worst kind of crime going on and it seems to be an important confession of the weak ness of the police force when the superintendent and the commissioners claim that this state of affairs has been going on for years past and that there is no more of 1t to-day than heretofore. The information these crimes has been kept se- ,ret by the police by order of Superintendent Small, and the reporters have been obliged to get the news in all sorts of ways" The arti- lie then describes the manner in which news s suppressed by order of Superintendent Small and his alleged petty tyranny over re- ,orters owing to their discovery and publica- ! ion of such news, and concludes: "In oppo- ition to the denial of the superintendent of l police that there is no more crime than usual l he reporters have piled up cases by the | lozen, giving name, date and place, and are atisfed that they have good case" The ame paper tells of numbers of private I lately engaged and quotes one fire ! rms dealer as stating that he had sold one | housand reYolvers to citizens during the past l week.